Rostenkowski Unfazed By Years Of Testimony

WASHINGTON — From outside the grand jury room in the nondescript federal building here, steady whispers have come from a quiet parade of witnesses and lawyers.

Now heading into a third calendar year, grand jurors have been hearing parts of a story presented, unchallenged, by prosecutors trying to build a case against Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.).

According to those familiar with it, prosecutors have been assembling an extraordinarily broad-based inquiry that touches nearly all aspects of Rostenkowski's public life.

The resulting whispers, leaks and news reports have produced what seems a caricature of a Chicago pol: On the make. Maybe on the take. Helping some little people, running over others.

The grand jury has heard testimony about a cash-for-stamps scheme in which Rostenkowski, 65, who could have retired last year and legally pocketed more than $1 million in campaign funds, has allegedly received more than $20,000.

It has heard testimony about the unusual terms of a car lease and an office rental back in Chicago. It has heard about another time-dishonored feature of Chicago politics, ghost payrollers, as well as testimony about a system of power and privilege in Congress where an elected elite rules a servant class of clerks and functionaries.

Through all of this, a distracted Rostenkowski has continued to function in the corridors of congressional power, lately sitting in the chairman's seat as the House Ways and Means Committee collects testimony on President Clinton's national health-care proposal.

Grand jury or not, he remains one of the most powerful men in Congress, central to the fortunes of Clinton's legislative program and still a force to be reckoned with. But all of that would end if he is indicted, which would force him to leave the chairman's job.

Clinton needs Rostenkowski as his point man next year on the health-care and welfare-reform bills. He also will count on the burly Chicagoan when he asks Congress to pass the international trade-reform agreement called GATT, which could lead to as big a floor fight as the North American Free Trade Agreement did.

An indictment "would be very difficult because President Clinton relies on him very strongly," said Rep. Thomas Foglietta (D-Pa.). Rep. Sam M. Gibbons (D-Fla.), 73, would be next in line for the chairman's job, but Foglietta said it would take Gibbons a long time to develop Rostenkowski's level of skill and contacts in and outside of Congress.

Perhaps sensing trouble, a baker's dozen of hopefuls have filed nominating petitions to challenge Rostenkowski in the 5th Congressional District, where he has held a lock on the Democratic nomination for decades.

Seeking to exploit Rostenkowski's woes, political nemesis Dick Simpson, acting after reports on ghost payrollers in Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times, called for Rostenkowski to return to taxpayers at least $525,000, Simpson's estimated cost of the alleged ghosts.

Ghost employees-people who collect pay without showing up for work-have been part of the mythology of the Chicago Democratic machine for generations. But not without cause. There was, for example, Walter Kozubowski, who recently began a 5-year prison term for running a nearly $1 million ghost payroll operation from his office as city clerk.

Sources familiar with the grand jury investigation said that, for at least two months, it has been receiving testimony from Chicago-based workers on the Rostenkowski payroll. They are being asked about how many hours they put in and the nature of their work, a source close to Rostenkowski said.

Several of those same people told the Sun-Times they did little, if any, work.

A source familiar with the evidence said that prosecutors have continually been finding additional avenues for inquiry. They say they go well beyond the cash-for-stamps scheme at the House Post Office that initially prompted the investigation and now include possible tax, fraud and conspiracy-related charges.

For his part, Rostenkowski refers questions to his lawyer, Robert Bennett, a prominent Washington litigator. Attempts to reach Bennett were unsuccessful.